The Last Years of Willem De Kooning 1994

Marlene Dumas made this painting, 'The Last Years of Willem De Kooning', and it feels like a memory, smudged and fading. The image seems to materialize out of a dark void. I can imagine Dumas working quickly, capturing a fleeting impression. The paint is applied in thin washes, almost like watercolor, with these stark contrasts of black and white and just a touch of light blue. It's like she's trying to grasp something that's slipping away. It’s interesting to note the title, “The Last Years…” which suggests a meditation on mortality, on fading genius. Maybe Dumas saw something of that in De Kooning's late work, the way his paintings became looser, more ethereal. It’s a conversation across generations. She’s almost channeling him, or maybe mourning him. It's painting about painting, about memory, about the passage of time. And that’s the beauty of it, right? It’s not fixed, it’s open to interpretation, just like life itself.